Goal: Oppose the potential appointment of Ernest Moniz to the Department of Energy

President Obama has proposed to appoint Dr. Ernest Moniz, director of MIT’s oil-sponsored Energy Institute and fracking proponent, as head of the Department of Energy. His nomination could undermine progress against climate change, and Obama should appoint a Secretary of Energy who will move us away from fossil fuels. A proponent of fracking is the wrong choice to head the Department of Energy in the fight for a sustainable future.

Ernest Moniz is a Professor and the director of the MIT Energy Initiative, a research enterprise that has received hundreds of millions of dollars in pledges from the oil and gas industry. Four of the principle members of the Energy Initiative are BP, Shell, Italy’s ENI and Saudi Aramco, who each agreed to pay $25 million for MIT research projects. The Energy Initiative came out with a study that concluded gas from shale drilling is the path to the future, and recommended a switch from coal to natural gas in U.S. electric power as a way to help slow global warming.

Although fracking is hailed as a “bridge fuel” to renewable energy, fracking for natural gas extends our dependence on fossil fuels and contributes to global climate change and poisons drinking water. As a proponent of fracking, Dr. Ernest Moniz is not an acceptable leader for the Department of Energy. Sign this petition and ask President Obama to appoint an energy secretary who will insist on moving us towards sustainable energy.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear President Obama,

Your recent nomination of Ernest Moniz for Secretary of Energy severely undermines progress against climate change. Big Oil sponsors Dr. Moniz’s research initiatives at MIT. If appointed, Dr. Moniz will have to represent the fossil fuel industry’s interests, which focus on profit rather than leading the country in the direction of renewable energy.

Dr. Ernest Moniz and the oil companies he represents are proponents of hydraulic fracturing, a practice that prolongs our dependence on fossil fuels and contributes to global climate change. Mr. Moniz is not an acceptable lead for the Department of Energy and the public demands you instead appoint an energy secretary who will move us towards truly sustainable, clean energy.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo credit: London Commodity Markets via Flickr

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We need clean air -water -land -food, and a healthy whole world to live on. The energy sources we need to transition to are solar energy, wood wind energy, only on float/boats wave energy sent to homes. No Hydraulic Fracturing(Fracking). Please watch gas lands and check all the evidence on the ban fracking and no fracking pages on-line, and facebook.